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Thursday, 20 September 2012

Review: Catching Fire, by Suzanne Collins

We all know about The Hunger Games, right?

And we all know how fabulous it is!

But are we head over heels for the books, or the movie?

This is what I'm going to discuss, however cautiously, in the review of Catching Fire. At the end of the first in the trilogy (if you don't already know), Katniss and Peeta have successfully tricked The Capitol with their love, intelligence, and a lot of Nightlock! But after winning the 74th Hunger Games, President Snow has his eyes on them and knows something isn't right. So, he goes to The Victor's Village armed with a rose to make a deal with Katniss.

And time is ticking.

With the 75th annual Hunger Games on the horizon, Katniss thought she was safe from another reaping. But this year is the Quarter Quell - a special year in which the Gamemakers can do whatever they want to put on a good show.

Now here's for the honest opinion.

The first few pages had me HOOKED. Because I really admire Suzanne's work, I was expecting that throughout the rest of the book. And I did get it, until the very end.

For everyone else who has read it... I have a question. Did the ending seem a little too fast for you? Because it did for me, and I have to tell you it kind of killed my mood after getting through the other amazing 400 and something pages. I felt like the ending wasn't explained as well as it should have been, and it left both the reader and Katniss on a cliff-hanger as she too had no idea what was going on.

I don't really get that. Why would you spend all of that time on a book, just to rush the ending and cut out all description? I have never understood this as a reader because I know that most authors struggle to hit their word target for each manuscript, and even I try to add as much detail as possible to make the reader understand what I feel as I'm writing it.

Suzanne Collins obviously had no problem hitting her target, but a few more pages couldn't have hurt.

So if you have started the trilogy, then I would advise you to keep reading it. They are incredible books, but sometimes I think that people get more obsessed with the movies and overlook the novel because everyone is too busy going crazy over the actors.

And I'm not complaining with those people, because the cast is perfect. But the common error of loving a fandom is comparing the books to the movie version.

That's my opinion, and hey - I'm not called The Book Critic for nothing.

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